Rasputin still alive, sells RV's in Reno

There are two things that the one-of-every-11 Nevadans who read a newspaper learned over the weekend: 1) Gov. Jim Gibbons has managed to reach the ripe old age of 63 without ever developing a responsible work ethic. 2) Raging paranoiacs attract.

First, let's examine sloth and negligence as practiced by the nation's worst governor, starting with this fine paragraph from Erin Neff's column in the RJ:

When the examiners began their meeting, Gibbons came on the line via teleconference and suggested the lieutenant governor could chair the proceedings for him. That might work if the lieutenant governor served on that board. And since Gibbons has chaired the board many times already, you'd think he'd know that. But he told those listening he really couldn't chair the meeting Tuesday because he had no agenda.

Well, nobody else in Nevada has an agenda either, so at least Gibbons can still claim that he's in touch with the mainstream.

Meantime, according to a rather long and very sad story in the Las Vegas Sun:

• Gibbons never shows up for work!
• Gibbons never talks to anybody who works in the government he is supposed to be leading, preferring to manage instead by sitting under a crystal pyramid and sending brain waves out to be channeled by various department heads.
• Everybody hates him.
• The primary argument in favor of the proposition that Jim Gibbons is remotely qualified to be governor is that he knows more about the state than his (poor, poor) press secretary who has been on the job for at least three months and who is 12.

Now, just because Gibbons has abrogated all his responsibilities, has routinely failed to perform his duties and is an incompetent oaf, and just because all those severe professional disadvantages are compounded by his obvious emotional instability, some people — icky liberals, for instance — might hold that against him.

But they shouldn't be so quick to judge. After all, maybe their actions and behavior would seem strange and inexplicable to others, too, if everyone was out to get them in a coordinated and elaborate conspiracy!

In a revelation that somehow, in retrospect, makes perfect sense, it turns out that Gibbons' leading and most trusted adviser is an RV salesman. The guy's name is Howard Weiss, and in an exchange gracing the bottom of that aforementioned long, sad Sun story, most of the questions that anyone might have had about what drives Jim Gibbons are finally and eerily explained.

“You have a governor from the north. Certain factions do not like it that way.”

Then he went on.

“I could easily say no comment. I’d rather say, a lot of the things that came out, came out on purpose.

“People didn’t want him to be, or remain, as governor. From the primary to the campaign to becoming governor. When did all of it start? I don’t know if it’s Democratic or Republican. I don’t know that world.

“Look at dates and times and places. You’ll see the puzzle pieces come together.

“Go back to the time in the primary, then to the campaign, the way things transpired. It was like everybody came after him, if you recall. The accusations — it didn’t stop. Right after he was elected and so on.

“Now we go through a period when it calms down, it’s going away. All of a sudden comes this bombshell,” Weiss said, referring to the filing by Dawn Gibbons accusing the governor of being infatuated with another woman.

“That’s the way the puzzle comes together.”

Which of course is a pointed reminder that perhaps no already-underfunded state program can ill-afford even more budget cuts than mental health services.

Comments

[texexnv@gmail.com]

Howard Hughes....Rasputin....X2B.... Twilight Zone.

[Juice]

Weiss is an idiot. You coudl not pay me enough to try to defend this ass-clown governors actions - not prior to the election, not now.
There is no defense except: "I am an incompetent, inept idiot and I resign".
IMPEACHMENT would be music to my ears!

[Michael Green]

The McCain vote totals and the Gibber defenders belong to the same cult: the kind of people who don't object to attempted sexual assault but find a southern accent or the failure to wear a flag pin to be a deal-breaker. And we wonder why Nevada is a fourth-rate state.

[happykid]

Awwww, poor wittle Jim Gibbons.
Where is the recall petition?
(And no, it has nothing to do with the fact he is a major skank and philander. What does matter is his gross incompetence and criminal behavior.)

[kickboxermomma]

I'm missing something here. When was Gibbons ever engaged?

[Barry Smith, Nevada Press Association]

Wow. Nevada sure has grown. Because if one in 11 Nevadans reads a newspaper, that puts the population at about 26 million.
(I know. I know. I'm just saying ... )

[Gleaner]

Well, Barry, it all comes back to statistical assumptions.

For instance, you're probably assuming that each newspaper printed in the state gets ready by, oh, 3.6 people.

I, by contrast, am assuming that only one of, oh, 3.6 newspapers printed in Nevada is read by anybody (one in 36.6 if you include the neighborhood shoppers like the Home Newses and Views).